


Love Within

by ami_ven



Category: Cardcaptor Sakura
Genre: Community: writerverse, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-03
Updated: 2014-11-03
Packaged: 2018-02-23 23:07:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2559125
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ami_ven/pseuds/ami_ven
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“A love charm?” asked Eriol, picking up the paper that had fluttered to his feet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love Within

**Author's Note:**

> written for LJ community "writerverse" prompt "love charms" (500+ words)

When Kaho had been very little, her grandmother began showing her how to make the paper love charms that were sold at her family’s shrine in Tomoeda.

Kaho was fascinated, watching Grandmother’s strong, wrinkled fingers hold the paintbrush steady as she wrote the delicate characters of the charm spell. She knew, even then, that magic existed in the world, but that not everything which seemed magical truly was.

“A real spell, yes,” her grandmother replied, never slowing in her work. “But it can only reveal love that is already within. No spell can _create_ love, true love. Remember that, child.”

Kaho did remember.

She watched the girls who came to her family’s shrine, faces lighting up as they told one another about the people they loved. Some of them, she knew, were only passing infatuations, no less precious for being so brief, and Kaho smiled just as brightly at them as she did at the lucky ones who had so early found their true loves.

Kaho herself was never one of them.

There were several boys who caught her eye throughout her school days, but Kaho never found herself falling in love with any of them. She came very close with Touya, who was young and sweet and sincere, but by then she had come into her own magic and she knew that she could not share his path. Kaho knew, in that nebulous way she knew things, without knowing how or why, that they would meet again and that Touya would play an important part in her future, and though she was sad to say goodbye, she knew it was for the best.

Kaho had slipped one of the paper love charms into her suitcase when she left for England, more as a reminder of home than as anything else. She lost track of it somewhere in the move back to Japan, then to England again, until everything had settled and she was unpacking the last of her books into their beautiful new library.

“A love charm?” asked Eriol, picking up the paper that had fluttered to his feet. 

He was taller than when she had met him— giving part of his power to Sakura’s father had stopped the spell that had let him maintain his younger age. Privately, Kaho thought it suited him, that his appearance was nearly as mature as he had always been, but she was wise enough not to mention it. Eriol was still a bit uncomfortable, in public at least, that he looked so much younger than she did, when even his reincarnated form was a few years older.

“I used to watch to watch my grandmother make them,” Kaho said, bringing her thoughts back to his question. “But there’s hardly any magic in it.”

“Perhaps. But there isn’t any _love_ in the charm, is there? Only in us.”

Kaho smiled, and took the hand he held out to her. “I don’t know about that,” she teased. “I have a sudden urge to kiss you just now.”

“Funny,” said Eriol, grinning. “I feel exactly the same.”

THE END


End file.
